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Quantum

Optics Lab 180Q


Week 3 Ray Tracing, Gaussian Beams, and ABCD Matrices
The goal of this lab is to learn the techniques of ray tracing and Gaussian Optics with
ABCD matrices. We will first introduce ABCD matrices through the concepts of ray tracing.
Here we will use them to design two important optical systems: a telescope and a
microscope. After this, we will use the same ABCD matrices to understand the propagation
of a real laser beam (i.e. a Gaussian beam). In this work we will see that not only does this
technique tell you things that you get from ray tracing, i.e. the location of the focus and the
magnification, but it also tells you new things like the width of the laser beam and its
divergence. (Note: These concepts are not terribly challenging, but they are
FUNDAMENTAL to everything we will do in this class. For example, next week we will use
them when we couple a laser beam to single-mode and multi-mode optical fibers. So, please
work hard to master this material this week.)
Background Material
This section provides a brief summary of the material covered in lecture. It is also
recommended that you familiarize yourself with Verdeyens treatment of these subjects.

Ray Tracing with ABCD matrices
The technique of ABCD matrices is a simple, but powerful tool that simplifies the
often-cumbersome task of graphical ray tracing. Briefly, because light rays travel in a
straight line -- NOTE: Real propagating electromagnetic fields are not light rays. Light rays
are an idealization -- it is possible to describe their propagation with only two values: (i)
the displacement of the ray from some chosen axis and (ii) the angle it makes this axis.

2%

Light%Ray%
r1%

1%

r2%

d%
For%a%homogeneous%medium:%1%=%2%
And%%r2%%=%r1%+%d%tan1%=%r1%+%d%r1%%
%%r2%=%0%r1%+%1%r1%

Axis%

Thus, for the homogeneous medium of the above picture, we can write:
!!
! ! !!
=
,
!!
! ! !!
which for a general optical element can be written as:
!!
! ! !!
=
.
!!
! ! !!
The most common examples of optical elements we will consider are lenses,
mirrors, and the empty space a beam propagates through. Each optical element can be
described by a matrix. If you have a series of elements, it can be represented as a product
of element matrices. For example, a 2-lens telescope has three optical elements: an
objective lens, space between the objective and the eyepiece, and the eyepiece lens. The
product of the three corresponding matrices will give you a single matrix you can use to
describe the behavior of a ray through the system. The matrices do not commute, so their
order matters. The matrices should left multiply (Think about why this is. How does 1
matrix modify a ray?).
With the ABCD matrix for a given compound system, like a telescope or microscope,
you can easily find the location of the focal plain and the magnification. You will these
concepts in the first part of this lab.

Gaussian Beams
A laser beam is the result of light resonating in a cavity, and can be made of multiple
transverse modes of the electromagnetic field. In this class, we will mainly work with the
lowest order mode, the TEM0,0 mode. The cross section (in the x-y plane) of this beam is
Gaussian. Note a Gaussian does not have a well-defined width, so we must be precise about
our definition of the radius of a laser beam (also known as the beam waist). Typically, the
beam waist, w, is defined as the radius at which the electric and magnetic fields decay by
1/e of their maximum amplitude (and therefore it is also called the e-2 intensity waist as
explained below). As derived in class, a laser beam propagating through space does not
remain perfectly collimated along its entire path i.e. ! = !(!). If a beam travels along
the z direction, the beam waist evolves from a minimum radius !! , called the minimum
waist or (unfortunately) just the waist, given by: ! ! ! = !!! 1 +

! !

!!

, !! =

!"!!!
!

In the lab we cannot directly measure the electric and magnetic field of a laser, but
we can measure the intensity. Since intensity is proportional to E2 and B2, the waist is the
distance from the beam center where the intensity decays by 1/e2 (a Gaussian squared is
still Gaussian). Note that not all beams are circular, many are elliptical. There may be a
waist in the x and y directions, and they probably will not be in the same place along the
beam direction i.e. the beam is astigmatic. By measuring the waist at three spots along z,
you can do a non-linear fit to equation 1 and determine wo and the location of the waist.
Equation 1 assumes the waist is at z=0. You will have to modify the equation a little, by

letting z become z-d, and determine d from the fit. This is because you probably will not
take your first measurement exactly at the minimum waist.
You now are able to describe the shape of a laser beam, but what about the phase?
If we were working with perfect plane waves, every point on the x-y plane for a given z
would have the same phase. In other words, the wave front is a plane of constant phase.
For a TEM0,0 laser beam, the wave front is spherical. The radius of curvature of this
wavefront changes with z, and it only becomes planar at the waist (Infinite radius of
curvature). The radius of curvature can be described by the equation:
!
! ! = !(1 + ( !! )! ) (2)
Notice that as z approaches 0, R(z) goes to infinity, as predicted. At large z, R(z)
becomes linear in z. In other words, the wave front is described by a sphere of radius z.
This means the wave front looks like a spherical wave radiating from z = 0.

Also, notice how R can change sign depending on z. Observe how a diverging beam
has a positive R, and a converging beam has a negative R. Keep this in mind when thinking
about the shape of the wave front after a lens.
You now know that the beam width spreads out linearly for z >> z0. The spread
angle can be described as:
!!

! = !"! (3)
!



Gaussian Beams and ABCD matrices
You now have most of the machinery needed to describe a real laser beam. Next we
will learn how to calculate the behavior of a laser beam as it travels through any series of

optical elements. In ray optics, we analyzed this situation using ABCD Transfer matrices
(sometimes called T Matrices). However, ray tracing does not tell us how to account for the
evolution of the beam waist and the beam radius of curvature. Though it will not be derived
here, these same ABCD matrices can also be used to propagate a Gaussian beam through an
optical system. In this way we not only get the location of the focus (which ray tracing will
give you), but we also have information about the beams waist and divergence (which ray
tracing will not give you).
A Gaussian beam can be described by its q parameter. It is easiest to write as its
reciprocal, 1/q. It is defined as the complex number:
!
!

= ! ! !"! ! (4)

Once you know 1/q at some location z on your beam, you can use an ABCD matrix to see
how your 1/q is transformed by your optical system. The following equation is true, but,
to my knowledge, has never been derived from first principles:
!
!!

!!!
!!!

!
!!
!
!!

(5)

The parameter q1 is q before the optical system and q2 is the transformed parameter, i.e. q
after the light has passed through the optical system. (NOTE: Frequently you will do this
calculation numerically, and the result is a complex number. You can equate this number
to equation 4, and solve for R and w.)

There are many implications that can be derived from these equations. See
Verdeyen Chapter 3 for more detail. Here we just state some of the important details.

Assume there is a Gaussian beam, incident on a thin lens of focal length f, where the
beam has a planar wave front. Note this is a somewhat unrealistic approximation, but it
often works well enough. Also assume the beam travels some distance z away from the
lens. Several important relations can be derived. First, the minimum spot size does not
!
occur at z = f. The actual minimum is at !! , where !!" = !!!!
/! and !!" is the waist of the
beam where it intersects the lens:
!! =

!
!!

(6)

!!"

And the minimum spot size is given by:


!"

!!" = !! (7)
!"

These will frequently give good estimates for optical systems you design. However real
beams are Gaussian, and will not have planar wave fronts (except at the minimum waist).

It will be important to use the full power of the q parameter to see what really happens in
real situations.

If you relax the restriction of a planar wave front, the importance of the radius of
curvature is quickly seen. The radius of curvature after a lens is related to the curvature
before a lens by:
1
1 1
=

!! !! !

To give an example of the meaning of the previous equation, think of a laser beam
incident on a convex (converging) lens. When a beam converges, it has R < 0. This implies
R2 must be negative. R1 must therefore be larger than f, or the lens will not focus the beam.
This should not be surprising. If you think back to ray optics, a diverging beam can be
collimated by a lens of the correct f. A small R1 simply implies a very divergent beam. This
relation simply confirms what we already know about optics.

Materials

The TA will provide the necessary materials.


CCD Camera and software
Lens tube and collection of lenses for your telescope and microscope
If you want to get creative, check out the random lens drawer.
Laser system
Laser safety goggles. Wear them!
Two kinematic mirrors and assembly
Beam measurement system: Knife-edge mounted on translation stage (be careful)
Photodiode, BNC cable, variable impedance terminator, and oscilloscope
One Lens and assembly


Prelab


1. Design a Keplerian telescope (also known as a laser beam expander).
a. Use ABCD matrix ray tracing to calculate the T-matrix for the telescope
shown below. This telescope, when focused at infinity, is very useful for
changing the waist of a laser beam thus its often called a beam expander,
beam shrinker, or just a beam telescope. Use the T-matrix to calculate the
ratio of the input beam waist to the output beam waist. (NOTE: No need to
propagate a full Gaussian beam, just look at what happens to a ray displaced
from the axis by w to get an approximate answer.)
b. Since this telescope has parallel light rays coming into and out of it, why do
you see an image when you look through one?

c. The magnification of the telescope comes from the fact that it amplifies the
angle r1 (i.e. r2 > r1), which makes the object appear closer. (Think about
this point carefully as it can lead to confusion. Light from distant objects is
mostly parallel to the axis and light from close objects has a higher angle
spread, which means it is focused to a larger area on your retina. Thus
appearing bigger. In fact, a real telescope does not magnify in the traditional
sense of the word. For example, the object size of the moon is quite large, so
for the whole image of it to fit on a camera or your retina requires the image
size to be much smaller than the object size.) Therefore, the magnification of
a telescope is really the amount by which it magnifies the angle. What is the
magnification of the Keplerian telescope shown below?
d. In the lab build a Keplerian telescope and record the images that it produces
on a CCD chip. The CCD chip records the light intensity at each pixel and thus
can be used to produce an image, if the chip is at the location of a real image.
Draw how you will modify the basic Keplerian telescope to accomplish this.
Also, given that the magnification of a telescope is defined as how much
bigger it makes an object look to a given imaging system, does the
magnification can change given your modification?


2. Design a microscope. Use the same techniques to design a microscope system. Use
two lenses to produce a real magnified image on a screen after the exit of the
microscope. Calculate the magnification in terms of the relevant focal lengths and
distances.
3. Derive the beam waist measurement formula. There are multiple ways to
measure the beam waist of a laser. The easiest is to shine the laser on a CCD and
directly image the beam. Another (much cheaper) way is to translate a knife-edge
across the beam in one direction, while recording the optical power as a function of
position of the blade. We will use the second method in lab and here you will derive
the theory behind it.
Assume the cross-sectional intensity of a laser beam is Gaussian (i.e. TEM00).
Assume the beam propagates in the z direction. The parameter wi is the beam waist
along the ith direction, and the variables x and y are coordinated in the x-y plane.
The intensity profile of the laser at a specific z position is then given as:
!

!!!
2!
! !, ! =
! !! ! !
! !! !!

!!! !
!
!!

Now calculate the observed power on the photo-detector as a function of position of


the knife-edge. To aid you, the basic geometry looks like:


You should find that the power is given as:
!
2
1 + erf
!
2
!!
This technique only gives wx. How can you measure wy?


4. Fitting real data. Using the above method, the beam waist was measured at a
certain location from the laser exit. The results of the measurement were:
position(inches) = [0.138, 0.133, 0.125, 0.118, 0.108,
0.147, 0.151, 0.159];
! ! =

volts(V) = [1.338, 1, 0.5, 0.25, 0.1, 2, 2.25, 2.5];


Fit the formula you derived in the previous question to this data using your favorite
least squares algorithm to determine wx. Mathematica has a convenient function for
this.

5. Propagate a Gaussian Beam through lenses. Suppose a Gaussian beam has an


infinite radius of curvature and waist equal to wo at a point z1 in space. If the twolens telescope, drawn in Problem 1, is placed such that the objective lens is at z1,
calculate R and w at the exit of the telescope eyepiece. It is strongly recommended
that you accomplish this problem using the program you will have to write for part
4 of the Procedure below. This will save you lots of time in the lab.

Procedure

Ray Tracing
1. Build an electric eye. Throughout the first part of this lab you will need to use a
CCD system as a stand in for your eye. Just like your eye, youll need a lens (use one
of the lenses available in the lab) and a retina (use the CCD). Position a short focal
length lens (f = 30 mm recommended) in front of the CCD chip and adjust it so that if
focus objects at infinity (approximate infinity as the far side of the room.) It should
look something like:


(Left: Thorlabs CCD chip with a C-mount adapter, ND filter, and adjustable lens
holder mounted to it. Right: Image of Justin from the other side of the room. In this
image the Camera software settings menu is also visible at the right of the screen.
This menu can be opened by clicking on the wrench icon, from this menu you can
adjust things like the exposure time, which will set the light level.)

2. Build a telescope. Use the camera, lens tube, and lenses that are provided by the TA
to build a telescope like Prelab problem 1d. In your lab notebook detail the design
you chose and use ABCD matrices to verify it as well as calculate the magnification.
Use the camera software to take a picture of something. Feel free to put the software
on your laptop and go mobile. Bonus points to the best photo as judged by the TA.
Below is a picture of a sample setup and picture. Notice that an adjustable length
lens tube is used to adjust the distance between the objective and eyepiece lenses.

The magnification used in this telescope was only ~2x (as verified by comparing to
the picture of Justin above.)




3. Build a microscope. Use the camera, lens tube, and lenses that are provided by the
TA to build a microscope. In your lab notebook detail the design you chose and use
ABCD matrices to verify it as well as calculate the magnification. Bonus point to the
best photo as judged by the TA.
Gaussian Beams
4. Measure the beam profile. You will measure the beam profile at three different
points, and calculate the beam minimum waist and its location. You will do this in
the horizontal and vertical directions.
a. Configure the laser beam to shine lengthwise down the table. Have two
beam-steering mirrors setup close to the laser. Using irises, ensure that the
beam is level and roughly follows a row of holes on the table.
b. Find three roughly evenly spaced locations along the beam. Try to keep the
spacing as large as possible; your calculations will be better. Mark these
locations with tape.
c. Measure the beam waist in the x and y directions using the knife technique.
Do this for each of the three locations. See the Appendix for information on
how to measure a beam waist.
d. As carefully as possible, measure the distance between the locations you
marked.
e. Using the waist and the distances, find the beam waist w0 by doing a nonlinear fit on equation 1. Note, you will need to let z become z+d, where d is
some offset of your measurement from the waist. The non-linear fit should
determine w0 and d for you. There is more than one way to do this fit. In
Mathematica, use the function FindFit. Record the beam waist and the offset
in your lab notebook.

f. Plot your measured data on top of equation 1, with your calculated waist and
offset for both the x and y dimensions. Does the fit look reasonable? Using a
card, look for the beam waist on your beam. Is it roughly where you
calculated it to be? How large is the beam at the laser?

5. Numerically calculate the behavior of a lens on your table. You will learn how
to numerically calculate the behavior of your beam. You will write a program that
finds the minimum spot size and its location. The location of the lens and its focal
length should be adjustable. The steps below will guide you through making a
Mathematica program, but you may use other software.
a. Write a function that gives you 1/q as a function of location on your table.
You may choose your zero to be any convenient reference point.
b. Write a function that takes a T matrix and a 1/q value, and returns a
transformed 1/q.
c. Write two functions that take a 1/q value, and return beam waist and radius
of curvature for the given 1/q.
d. Numerically, you will now place a lens in the system, somewhere other than
the minimum waist. Write a function that returns the ABCD matrix of a lens,
and then free space propagation by some distance z. The focal length and the
propagation distance should be parameters to this function.
e. Now predict the beam waist and radius curvature some arbitrary distance
from the lens. Use function b, with function d as parameter to find a 1/q
value. Use equations c to extract the radius of curvature and waist. Plot the
beam as a function of z, for some fixed f. Chose a real value for f. See what
lenses are in the lab.
f. Find the location and size of the minimum spot size. How do these compare
to the approximations, equation 6 and 7? Mathematica has a FindMinimum
function that can find these values. Now place your lens at the minimum
beam waist of the laser. Now what do equations 6 and 7 tell you?

6. Place the lens in the beam and measure its effect.
a. Place the lens in the beam path at a place of your choosing, and then measure
the beam profile exiting the lens at a place of your choosing.
b. Use the program you wrote for step 4 to calculate the beam profile at the
location of your measurement and compare the two.

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